Having first played an earlier configuration of McDade in 2017 and 2018, I wrote my first review here in 2017. After the redesign, I played in 2020, and now returned to the area in 2023 to play again and update the review. This course continues to get the most play in the immediate Conroe area, and attracts the crowds because it's well scaled for intermediate skill levels and above, and has variety galore from the big field shots to short ace-deuce runs (9 & 10, especially), to increasingly challenging, technical finishing holes (on 17 & 18). It is a park course that gets good maintenance and has very little underbrush in which to lose a disc. In fact, the only place I could see as a disc lost would be an overzealous shot on hole 13 going into the drink.

Fantastic, level, concrete tees and good signage clearly leads you to good DGA baskets, and forces you to control your throws into wooded gaps, along reasonable fairways, and under some low-ceiling branches. There's a lot to like about McDade. I liked the fact that there's a port-o-let by the 15th tee, that there are trash receptacles throughout the course, and that the course seems to be well-maintained. There are even gully crossing bridges for flash flood season.

The most challenging holes appeared to me to be hole 3, with a tight window to hit if you want to get very far down the way toward the basket (396' from the tee), and holes 11 & 16, which both require two really good control shots to get to the end of the lane greens for a three. They're appropriately listed as true par four holes for this intended target audience. Finally, it's nice to have a practice basket right by the parking area.

The lack of elevation in the region means they didn't have any to work with here, but it seems a little regrettable that they weren't able to incorporate the nearby river just a little more to make up for it (like Stonebridge Church nearby uses the pond for three gut-check shots). Only hole 13 here has the river a mere 40' past the basket to give you pause. The lack of next tee signage definitely would make this course a navigational challenge for the newcomer who forgets to bring a copy of the course map (I did see a faint arrow to 12 on a stone after 11, so you don't go right up to 15 directly). They are definitely needed after 1,6,7,11& 15.

Personally, I'm not a fan of long walks between holes (1 to 2) and doubling back fairways (2 to 3, 9 to 10), or holes that appear to play into the mouth of a path use by (possibly 'ignorant') 'civilians' (hole 2), so…

…I think it's interesting that this redesign (and particularly the relisting here on DGCR) used almost all the existing fairways, but did not address the issues of course flow. Like almost all courses, 'improvements' here were clearly added to lengthen the course, so hopefully that's your thing, and you'll enjoy this newer McDade.